Kashmiri labourers leaving Hamirpur after Pulwama terror attack

Hamirpur, Feb 25 : Kashmiri labourers known as “Khan Sahib” in Himachal Pradesh have started leaving this district of Himachal Pradesh to their respective abodes in Jammu and Kashmir against the backdrop of Pulwama terror attack.

Latest among those were Sarwar Khan and his younger brother Dilwarf Khan along with their sons who were working as labour in the Hamirpur town. They had come to the town only two months ago and used to leave in the months of May or June every year after raising their livelihood.

Following repeated calls from their families living in remote areas of Gurej tehsil of Jammu and Kashmir, they left for their homes last night by the government bus. These labourers had been working in Hamirpur along with their parents for the last three to four decades. Now their sons had also joined them in the labour work as they were short of jobs in Jammu and Kashmir.

Before leaving for their homeland, they told a group of mediapersons that they were happily doing their jobs in Hamirpur with help of the local people. They said that they were forced by the circumstances to leave for their native villages much ahead of their scheduled departure on yearly basis.

The labourers, praised the people of Hamirpur for their hospitality with whom they were living for the last three decades.

These khans live on the border of the Pakistan with India and said that if any war erupted between India and Pakistan, they would have to desert their villages as Pakistani forces used to harm them by resorting to shelling on their villages thereby causing damages to the human-beings, houses and cattle wealth.

Sources told that other Kashmiri laborers doing wood cutting works had also started leaving Hamirpur to Jammu and Kaashmir. However, when contacted, SP Hamirpur Arjit Sen said that he was not having such information that laborers working here from Jammu and Kashmir had started returning to their motherland.

He said that he would enquire about this from his agencies as such persons were enrolled with the police on their arrival from their places to any part of the district. He said that the situation was peaceful in the district and people of all communities were living peacefully. (UNI)